Tea and Sympathy or Teetering on Social Work? An Investigation of the Blurring of the Boundaries Between Voluntary and Professional Care

As the voluntary sector, particularly the use of volunteers, has been promoted and given greater importance and responsibility by the government, and statutory personal social services have been attacked, the boundaries between voluntary and professional care have become blurred. This article investigates this phenomenon using data from a study of a Home-Start scheme, which employs two part-time professional workers to organize a pool of volunteers. It looks at the reality of the provision of voluntary care from the perspective of the volunteers, the organizers of the scheme, and those for whom they provide a service. The gender perspective is considered as a crucial aspect in the “blurring of the boundaries”. It is argued that the new rhetoric of the flexibility and adaptability of welfare provided by the voluntary sector hides the increasing use of women volunteers, to offer sophisticated and intensive care. This creates a dilemma. In some cases, the women volunteers and their organizers feel that the essential nature of the care and the responsibility they are expected to take on are inappropriate and should be fulfilled by professional workers. On the other hand, the clients feel that its voluntary nature is an essential part of this care and that it could not be provided by paid statutory workers.     

Strategic Planning for Support Services for Children with a Parent or Close Relative in Prison

It has long been recognized that children with a parent or close relative in prison are more likely to experience educational difficulties, emotional distress, family breakdown and a substantial reduction in family income (Boswell 2002; Smith et al. 2007; Morgan et al. 2013b; Morgan and Gill 2013). Consequently, children with a parent in prison are more likely to require support from statutory services, especially education and social care. However, statutory support for this group of children is sparse, and children of prisoners tend not to be identified as a priority group. The demand on local authorities to spend their limited budgets wisely means tough decisions have to be made. These decisions are not taken in a vacuum: they are taken in a context of local need, consumer representation, central and local politics; underpinned by the values and attitudes of individual members as well as by the ethos or culture of the local authority itself. In this article we apply Axford's typology (2009) of the different cultures which underpin local authority service provision to data from a research study carried out in 2011 in one local authority which explored support provision in schools for children of prisoners. We examine the contradictions and gaps within the local authority's attempts to synergize the different modules of service delivery into a coherent pattern of provision, and we explore how changes in strategic culture might lead to improvements being made in terms of service delivery to this group of ‘vulnerable’ children.     

FAMILY CARERS: SOME IMPEDIMENTS TO EFFECTIVE POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

The shift to community care for people with disabilities in Australia has given rise to some recognition and acknowledgment, in both academic research and policy development, of the importance of their carers. However, information about government policy and services for carers is fragmented and limited. Our knowledge about the prevalence of caregiving and the socio-demographic characteristics of carers and their service needs, is inadequate. Studies in relation to carer use of and satisfaction with services tend to be small scale and focussed on a specific service or carer group. Carer views on broader mainstream service provision have received little attention. This paper identifies gaps in our knowledge as well as the practical and conceptual difficulties in documenting the range of services available and the relevant social policy. These difficulties are likely to reflect barriers to broad and effective policy and service development.     

An integrated system of engaging social workers and community volunteers in social care for the elderly: case studies in Taiwan

Integrating volunteers into social care is widely expected but rarely successful in practice. This paper discusses how the Community Care Centre Plan organising community volunteers to provide services to the elderly in Taiwan. This plan successfully integrated social workers and volunteers in a national system to offer service in local communities, showing a systemic practice of community care and a unique case of community-based and volunteer-based service. The purposes of this paper are to introduce the programme design and to understand how to integrate the mission of social workers and volunteers’ performance. The governmental policy and requirements, the role of social workers and the provision of voluntary community service which contributed to form the system were examined in this paper.     

Towards Understanding Variations in Social Care for Older People in England

Indicators of the public provision of old age social care are routinely recorded in England and have been used for diverse purposes including performance monitoring. Despite long‐term policy guidance promoting more homogeneous service provision, large variations can still be observed between local authorities (the providers of state‐funded social care). Our aim is to better understand such variations in a small selection of key aggregate indicators. Drawing on multiple data sources and pursuing a two‐step strategy, we first assess the explanatory power of a set of structural predictors and then add to the models a set of specific care management ‘process’ predictors. We find that structural factors beyond the control of local authorities explain a considerable share of the observable variation. The additional explanatory power of care management characteristics is small in comparison. Therefore, our findings suggest that caution must be taken when aggregate indicators of service provision are used for performance monitoring purposes, as a degree of autonomy over outcomes may be implied which in light of the empirical evidence is unrealistic. Past attempts to influence the aggregate pattern of service provision – apparently seeking greater ‘territorial justice’– are likely to have had adverse implications for service users and the uniformity of service delivery across England. Questions are raised about the adequate role of central government in a policy environment characterized by longstanding local government responsibility.     

Family support services delivered using a restorative approach: A framework for relationship and strengths‐based whole‐family practice

Family support services, an integral part of many welfare systems across the developed world, have witnessed a growing demand for the use of relationship and strengths‐based whole‐family approaches in the belief that this increases service engagement and effect. Despite this, knowledge that delivering services using such approaches can be challenging and calls for the identification and exploration of methods likely to promote and sustain their use. Restorative approach is an ethos and method centred on building and sustaining positive relationships, which is increasingly being adopted in family and children's services in the United Kingdom. Despite this, the scarcity of research conducted in this area as yet, means little is known of its use and effect in this context. This article draws on empirical data collected in a wider study exploring the efficacy of different family service delivery models to describe the use of restorative approach in family service provision and determine whether its adoption promotes sustained use of strengths and relationship‐based whole‐family approaches when working with families. Furthermore, it explores whether the process incorporates wider evidence‐based methods of change.     

Deterrence, expected cost, uncertainty and voting: Experimental evidence

We conduct laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of deterrence mechanisms under controlled conditions. The effect of the expected cost of punishment of an individual’s decision to engage in a proscribed activity and the effect of uncertainty on an individual’s decision to commit a violation are very difficult to isolate in field data. We use a roadway speeding framing and find that (a) individuals respond considerably to increases in the expected cost of speeding, (b) uncertainty about the enforcement regime yields a significant reduction in violations committed, and (c) people are much more likely to speed when the punishment regime for which they voted is implemented. Our results have important implications for a behavioral theory of deterrence under uncertainty.     

The Political Economy of City Formation in California: Limits to Tiebout Sorting

Objective . This paper analyzes the extent to which voter behavior in city formation elections supports Tiebout's (1956) hypothesis that residential sorting facilitates efficiency of local service provision. It develops a two-stage model of city formation to distinguish agenda setting from voter outcomes on city formation proposals. Methods . Logit analysis is used to analyze voting in 71 city formation elections, incorporating Heckman's two-stage procedure to correct for self-selection of local referenda. Results . Community fiscal and demographic factors influence agenda setting more than voting behavior. Wealthier communities in high-growth counties are more likely to propose formation of a city. In contrast, community characteristics have little influence on electoral outcomes, suggesting that boundedly rational voters rely on information heuristics. Conclusions . Although reduction of diversity did not appear to motivate city formation, sorting around residential income, land use preferences, and other demographic variables may facilitate relative efficiency of service provision.     

Volunteers, families and children in need: an evaluation of Family Friends

This paper explores the findings from a small‐scale research project that analysed the impact of Family Friends – a voluntary agency that provides support to families under stress who have children aged between 5 and 11 years. The study, funded by Family Friends, evaluated service users’ perceptions of the support they received, specifically in relation to the significance and impact of the volunteer befrienders. The research identified that there are a proportion of families in need who fail to attract services from mainstream statutory agencies. It also identified that the Family Friends voluntary agency makes a particular contribution to service provision by offering a friendly, non‐stigmatizing, caring and responsive service.     

What do service users think of evaluation? Evidence from family support

Programme evaluators increasingly strive to capture how service users experience child and family welfare programmes. Yet user involvement is rare in a more routine form of evaluation: performance measurement. This paper considers how service users' perspectives can help improve the performance indicators that inform child and family service funding, management and planning. Qualitative research, conducted in family support contexts in New South Wales, Australia, identifies five user‐defined domains upon which indicators can be based. As well as showing how parents judge service quality and outcomes, the findings also show how they experience data collection, and how they prefer to participate in the routine performance measurement and monitoring that informs child and family welfare provision.     

Making the Technological Transition – Citizens' Encounters with Digital Pension Services

We examine in this article the impact of digitization on the provision of public services by studying how citizens experience the use of web portals in their pension planning. Based on focus groups and user test material, we elucidate five critical phases that each operate as an obstacle for citizens' further engagement in the digital self‐service process: interest, access, comprehension, reflection and support. We argue that these phases and the obstacles they entail illustrate a transition away from a situation in which control and agency over the quality of public services is embedded in a dyadic relationship between citizens and frontline personnel, and to a situation characterized by more complex relations between citizens, the front line, and the digital infrastructure. We argue that this transition implies that citizens are required to possess a new type of competence that contains both financial and digital skills. Citizens who are unable to develop or acquire such competence are likely to be disadvantaged by the services. Lastly, we argue that these developments pose significant challenges for public administrations to ensure the overall quality of the public services.     

Women,trauma and substance abuse: Understanding the experiences of female survivors of childhood abuse in alcohol and drug treatment

Despite the available evidence suggesting gender should be considered in the provision of alcohol and/or drug (AOD) treatment, programmes are frequently offered in an apparent ‘gender vacuum’. This article argues that the generalist ‘one size fits all’ approach of many AOD services is not gender neutral but should be understood as implicitly gendered in that it neglects the specificity of women's needs in relation to abuse, mental illness and parenting. The discussion presented in this article is based on a qualitative study of the experiences of adult women with histories of childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence in AOD treatment. By examining the ways in which AOD treatments effectively ignore or minimise gender, this article uncovers intervention practices that efface the complexities underpinning AOD use among women and suggests ways in which alternative models of service delivery can create more validating and supportive environments. Key Practitioner Message: ● Some of the common assumptions underpinning alcohol and drug treatment do not adequately acknowledge the specific needs of female clients and so gender‐neutral service provision can be disenabling for women; ● Punitive service cultures or behaviour change strategies have a differential impact on female clients, many of whom have prior and ongoing experiences of abuse and violence; ● Service models that acknowledge the complex responsibilities and relational histories of female clients are more likely to engender a positive response and provide the opportunity to address the multiple and complex needs that can go unmet in non‐specialist services.     

Using local areas data to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and families

Because economic and social opportunities are unevenly distributed across England, the places in which children and young people are born and grow up can have significant influences on both their current well‐being and their future life chances. Data now available confirms the expected finding that the level of child well‐being found in an area tends to reflect its overall level of disadvantage. However, there are a number of exceptions to this general rule – local areas where child well‐being is either significantly better or worse than would be expected given the levels of advantage which exist there. Some of the possible explanations for these exceptions are considered, using additional data available from the mapping of children's services, particularly in relation to the provision of child and adolescent mental health services. It is argued that continued analysis of these different streams of data as they develop and mature over the coming years had an important role to play in assisting policy‐makers, service providers and local people, working collaboratively, to promote the well‐being of disadvantaged children and young people.     

Class politics in the sandbox? An analysis of the socio‐economic determinants of preferences towards public spending and parental fees for childcare

This article analyses the socio‐economic determinants of public preferences towards public spending and parental fees for childcare and how they are conditioned by institutional contexts. Previous studies of childcare policy preferences have focused on attitudes regarding the provision of care. However, when it comes to questions of financing, we know astonishingly little about how supportive individuals actually are of expanding pre‐school early childhood education and care, and how support varies across different socio‐economic groups in society. This is an important research gap because childcare provision and how it is financed have redistributive implications, which vary depending on the institutional design of childcare policy. Using novel and unique survey data on childcare preferences from eight European countries, we argue and show that preferences towards expanding childcare are more contested than it is often assumed. The institutional structure of childcare shapes how income matters for preferences towards how much should be spent and how provision should be financed. Where access to childcare is socially stratified, the poor and the rich develop different preferences towards either increasing public spending or reducing parental fees in order to improve their access to childcare. The findings in this article suggest that expanding childcare in systems characterised by unequal access can be politically contested due to diverging policy priorities of individuals from different social backgrounds.     

Conceptualising service integration for inclusive activation: Exploring transferal and translation of models from health care

Conceptual frameworks are important for advancing systematic understanding in a field of research. Many conceptual models have been developed to study service integration, but few have addressed activation. Based on an outline of the literature on the integration of labour market services, we explored two complementary conceptual models from integrated care and assessed whether the models could be transferred to the context of inclusive activation. The transferral of conceptual models is contingent upon whether the significant features of inclusive activation are like those of health care, and whether barriers to integrated labour market services are considered. We argue that the models facilitate a more analytical focus on service integration. Nevertheless, the models must be adjusted to account for the significant position of workplaces and employers, the importance of frontline professionals' knowledge base, the co-production of service provision and the values characterising the service encounters.     

社会网络对健康行为的影响

个人社会网络对健康的积极作用已得到诸多研究的验证。研究认为,社会网络能推动人们的健康行为,从而提升健康水平,但这一影响机制尚需经验研究的支持。本研究利用一项大规模社会调查数据,检验了社会网络对“母乳喂养”这一健康行为的影响机制。研究结果发现,新生儿母亲社会网络中强关系比例越高,越可能在新生儿成长的早期为母亲提供实际的帮助和社会支持,从而提高母亲提供母乳喂养的可能性;她们的社会网络中如果有医务人员,能更有效地传递相关知识和信息,也可提高母乳喂养的可能。因此,社会网络主要通过提供社会支持与信息来促进健康行为,从而提高健康水平。     

Using Private Social Care Services in Finland: Free or Forced Choices for Older People?

ABSTRACT

Use of private social care services among older people is increasing in Finland. This study aims to understand why older people choose private care in a comprehensive tax-subsidized social care system and examines whether people choose private service as a free choice or a forced choice as well as what factors contribute toward making these choices. Data for this study (N = 1,436) were gathered in 2010 from people aged 75 and above living independently at home in two Finnish cities: Tampere and Jyväskylä. Data were analyzed with several quantitative tests: chi-squared tests, multinomial regression analysis, and qualitative content analysis (for the open-ended responses from the survey questionnaire). Findings reveal that people chose private services mostly because of the effortlessness involved in its use and of the need for additional services that are unavailable through municipality; for example, cleaning. Majority of the respondents performed a free choice to use private services. People who lived in a city center with a higher level of income and who needed more services were more likely to be constrained toward using private support. Major concern, due to diminishing public service provision, is about service accessibility of economically disadvantaged groups; therefore, more research is required to understand the effects of the growing care market in Finland.     

A Triumph of Hope over Experience? Modernizing Accountability: The Case of Complaints Procedures in Community Care

Complaints procedures are one component of maintaining and improving the quality of community care services. However, how effective are they in providing a means of redress for service users? This article presents the findings from four research projects, which included complaints procedures in their survey of service users’ experiences of community care provision. These findings are compared with the outcomes of similar research projects. The article concludes by evaluating the Department of Health’s consultation proposals on complaints procedures, and other policy documents, in the light of the research findings.